市场化中的媒体:基于报纸报道汽车召回的经验研究

Media in Marketization: An Empirical Study Based on Car Recalls Reported by Newspapers

本文旨在研究中国市场化背景下报纸报道的经济动机。本文基于530份报纸对172起国产乘用车召回事件的报道数据研究发现,与机关报相比,市场化导向的非机关报会更积极报道汽车召回事件,尤其是对非本省汽车召回事件的报道。本文进一步收集了汽车厂商在61份纸媒上的广告投入信息,以此衡量汽车厂商在各报纸受众群体中的潜在需求。当非本省汽车发生召回时,非机关报的报道数量与非本省汽车厂商的广告投入显著正相关;而当发生本省汽车召回时,报纸报道与本省汽车的广告投入没有显著相关性,这反映了报纸对本地汽车厂商的保护。市场化导向的非机关报由于有较强的经济动机,其报道受到市场需求和广告收入的影响。本文为新兴的媒体偏误研究提供了来自发展中国家的证据,有助于我们从媒体报道的角度对地方保护主义形成更全面的认识。

This article analyzes the economic incentives of newspapers during the process of marketi- zation. Based on report data from 530 newspapers on 172 domestic car recall events, we show that com- pared with party newspapers, non-party newspapers, which are more marketized, tend to report car recall events more actively, especially about non-local ones. We further collect automobile manufacturers＇ adver- tisements on 61 newspapers as the proxy for potential demand for certain manufacturers＇ cars. Results show that non-party newspapers tend to report more recall events of non-local manufacturers with higher advertise- ment costs. The relationship between reports and advertisement level for the local manufacturers, however, is not significant, implying that non-party newspapers tend to protect local firms. One explanation is that marketization provides stronger economic incentives for non-party newspapers, and their reports are more vulnerable to the influence of market demand and advertisement. This article provides evidence for media bias from developing countries which also sheds some light on regional protectionism in China.